Le roman d'un chanteur

"Metropolitan" is a real find for opera lovers, with its absolutely glorious music and the heroic singing of opera star Lawrence Tibbett, one of opera's very brightest lights in the 1930s. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, "Metropolitan" showcases Tibbett in an absolutely ridiculous plot that features actors Alice Brady, Cesar Romero, Virginia Bruce, Walter Brennan and others. Brady, who later won an Oscar as Mrs. O'Leary in "In Old Chicago" is the stereotypical temperamental diva who forms her own opera company and keeps changing the premier opera every five minutes. First, it's Barber of Seville so we can hear Tibbett do "Largo al Factotum" - and Tibbett's is the version I was raised on; then after an angry fit, she decides to do Carmen - thus, we hear Tibbett do "The Toreador Song." Finally, after hearing Virginia Bruce sing "Micaela's Aria," she decides to banish the company. The group gets back on its feet before opening and decide to do "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci" instead! Those poor ticket holders! No idea what they were going to see, but we got to see Tibbett rehearse those glorious numbers plus perform "Si puo" at the end. One wonders what the vicious diva considered herself. In the beginning, she's angry that the Metropolitan Opera did not cast her in "La Sonambula" - a patently coloratura role, then she assigns herself "Barber," a coloratura role, and finally a mezzo role, Carmen! Hello.

Singing styles have changed over the last 70 years - no more fast vibrato, no more white high notes from sopranos, and the declamatory type of singing in opera, done a little bit by Tibbett in "Si puo" is reserved for very old, dried out singers close to retirement. But nothing diminishes the magnificence of Tibbett's gift. It's so wonderful to have him on film to appreciate.

Tibbett was an excellent actor as well as singer, and on stage he must have appeared quite attractive. But though his career overlapped that of Nelson Eddy and they were separated only by four years in age, Tibbett could not have achieved what Eddy did in films. While not anywhere near as good an actor, Eddy was considerably handsomer, younger in appearance, and his beautiful voice was more accessible to audiences. But if you have any interest in opera at all, try to catch this on Fox Movie Channel and listen to Tibbett sing "De Glory Road." You won't hear anything like that again.

Darryl Zanuck's first release after the merging of his 20th Century co. and Fox studio, this features the boyish baritone, Lawrence Tibbett, in his prime. He was a busy guy in the 30s: top Metropolitan Opera star, movies, concerts, recitals and many radio appearances. The usual backstage story is played out with cheerful verve by the superior cast. Tibbett singing highlights are the famous "Figaro" aria from Barber of Seville; The Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen; the Prologue to Pagliacci; as well as his rousing concert showpieces, "On the Road To Mandalay" and "De Glory Road: a negro spiritual." Tibbett's autobiography is titled The Glory Road.

Although the music is as grand as it gets from grand opera if you see Metropolitan you will certainly recognize the backstage plot of a lot of Warner Brothers Busby Berkeley films plus a few Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland works of the let's put n a show variety.

Diva Alice Brady makes a grand gesture and walks out of the Metropolitan Opera and announces she's forming her on company. She takes promising baritone Lawrence Tibbett with her. Tibbett looking for his big break goes along, but Brady proves excessive with all her demands artistic and personal. Especially after Tibbett pays attention to promising new singer Virginia Bruce.

If you are a fan of Lawrence Tibbett he does more singing here than in any other film. It's a regular Tibbett concert as he does a great variety of work with songs from his many concert tours..

Great music if tied indeed to a routine backstage plot.

The script for this movie is really bad, a collection of tired clichés. And that's a shame, because there is enough talent here to have made a good movie.

Lawrence Tibbett was unquestionably one of the great singers of the first part of the twentieth century, and definitely one of the first American stars of opera, along with Rosa Ponselle and Grace Moore. He was a handsome guy who could act, and he had real stage presence, which you can see in this movie.

And that is what saves this movie from being a total loss. Several of Tibbett's signature roles - Tonio in Pagliacci, Escamillo in Carmen, Figaro in the Barber of Seville - get captured here, so that we can see why he delighted opera audiences for two decades at the Met. The opera excerpts are never presented or explained, however; they just get performed, leaving most of the audience to appreciate the music, if they can, without any idea what Tibbett is singing so well. That was expecting too much, I suspect, and it's a shame, because the three excerpts are good performances that could have been integrated into the script a lot better.

We also get to see Tibbett sing two popular numbers, and they are perhaps the most striking in the movie: a setting of Kipling's "On the road to Mandalay" and the spiritual "De glory road," with both of which Tibbett does a great job. Again, however, there is no effort to integrate them into the plot. At one moment, Tibbett sings them as examples of "beauty" to other musicians. Then they're over.

There isn't much else to notice in this movie. If that is Virginia Bruce doing Micaela's aria from Carmen, she does a good job of it.

The rest is all clichés. Why, you might wonder, does the movie start with Tibbett's character leaving Bruce's character stranded in the countryside with a broken down car? That should have aggravated her to no end. Instead, she falls in love with his voice.

It never gets any better.

This marked the end of Tibbett's movie career, and you can see why. But in this case the fault was not Tibbett's. The script was the villain!

Alice Brady is ideally cast as a temperamental diva. She is believable and hilarious. The voice with which she sings seems to be her own.

Virginia Bruce, a charming performer, is OK but no more as an ingénue.

The movie is Lawrence Tibbett's. He sings arias from several composers, as well as singing some appealing songs. (Was it common in those times for Caucasian opera singers to perform spirituals? Regardless: He sings one.) The plum is a long section of "Pagliaci," in which he is, of course, superb.

This is the only commercial movie in which I've seen Tibbett. He appears a bit stodgy and is certainly not conventionally handsome. But his singing is glorious; and singing is what this movie is about.about.